San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus spread and people remoted in their properties, a doctor in San Diego boasted that he had his arms on a “miracle remedy,” in line with prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Beach Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “remedy kits,” despite the medication becoming increasingly scarce. However Staley had a method of getting it, he later informed an undercover federal agent. He deliberate to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese language supplier, prosecutors said.

Staley was sentenced final week to 30 days in prison and a yr of home confinement for the scheme. He pleaded guilty last 12 months.

“On the height of the pandemic, before vaccines had been accessible, this physician sought to profit from sufferers’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman stated in a information release. “He abused his position of trust and undermined the integrity of your entire medical career.”

Staley’s attorney didn't immediately reply to requests for comment late Monday.

How false hope spread about hydroxychloroquine to deal with covid-19 — and the consequences that adopted

Hydroxychloroquine is often prescribed to people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to deal with malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, starting within the early days of the pandemic, as a “game changer.” Trump’s endorsement prompted demand for the drug to spike, resulting in shortages and ultimately affecting those that needed it for non-covid well being problems. Studies later found that hydroxychloroquine shouldn't be an efficient treatment for covid and didn't prevent people from becoming sick.

In response to prosecutors, federal brokers started looking into Staley after concerned customers alerted the FBI to the marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence innovations at inexpensive prices,” courtroom documents show, and supplied services including Botox, fats switch, hair removal and tattoo removing.

The covid treatment kit got here with a 30-day “concierge medical experience,” intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra price), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety drugs, information show.

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of many emails and inquired about the therapy package, investigators said. When Staley and the agent spoke on the cellphone soon after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “superb treatment” that may preserve someone immune from covid for at least six weeks, based on court docket records.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley stated to the undercover agent, courtroom paperwork present. “It’s onerous to believe, it’s nearly too good to be true. But it surely’s a remarkable medical phenomenon.”

He added that the virus “actually disappears in hours” after an individual takes the drug.

When requested by the agent whether the medicine was a “assured” treatment for covid, Staley stated sure but certified that “there’s all the time exceptions” and “there are no guarantees in life,” court docket records present.

During the name, Staley also advised the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “got the final tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” records show, and that he “tricked customs” by labeling the barrel as “candy potato extract.” He added that the powder was enough to make 8,000 doses in gelatin capsules.

Staley later provided the agent prescriptions for generic versions of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, regardless of by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors mentioned. The agent ordered six kits — enough for himself and 5 relations — for $4,000, in response to courtroom documents.

A Florida man obtained tens of millions in coronavirus help. He used it to purchase a Lamborghini, prosecutors say.

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded responsible in July 2021. As a part of his plea settlement, Staley also admitted to posing as one in every of his staff to fill a prescription for hydroxychloroquine to then use it in his kits, prosecutors stated. And he agreed to accusations that he lied to federal brokers throughout the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured cure for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in concern during a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Particular Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner said in a information release when Staley pleaded responsible. “Immediately, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as part of a rip-off to make a quick buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 effective and to provide again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s kit. He also needed to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of varied pharmaceutical medicine, a number of baggage of empty capsule capsules, and a handbook capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors said.

According to data from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been temporarily suspended by a court docket order.